Certain grain crops, such as soybeans, need to be weeded before harvesting, and this job traditionally has been done manually. A farmer walks between the rows of his crop chopping down weeds with a hoe-type implement. The job done during daylight hours, generally under hot sunlit conditions, is at best tiring and difficult.
It has been proposed to motorize the weeding operation, in part, by the use of a buggy, cart or personnel carrier, light in weight and powered by a small gasoline engine equipped to allow the farmer to sit thereon and be carried through the field in a position to reach the weeds with a hoe without dismounting. Such devices have removed a portion of the physical effort from the task, but have had drawbacks from the standpoint that the propelling of the vehicle, if the farmer is alone, either decreases his ability to do a fast and adequate weeding job, or allows the vehicle to veer off path between the rows and damage the growing crop. The buggy or carrier is utilized only in those instances where mechanized farmer-tractor driven equipment cannot do an adequate job of weeding so that the job must be done by hand. One such carrier is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,910,368.
There has existed a need to ease the function of steering the vehicle while concentrating upon the primary function of weed removal in a growing crop field. There has also been a need to provide a responsive steering system which will little affect the main task being performed by the rider of the carrier. There has further been a need to free the farmer rider of such a carrier to the extent that his hands and upper torso may be concentrated upon the task of removing weeds in the field, while requiring little attention to the directional control of the buggy upon which he is riding.